country Essentials · 12 foods
China Essentials
A considered first route through China: the foods that carry its everyday habits, celebrations, ingredients, and memory.
Explore all China foods →THE
ESSENTIALS
The complete shortlist
12 foods to know.
Each selection includes the reason it belongs here—so this is a guide, not just a pile of names.
Beijing, China
Peking Duck
北京烤鸭
Carved at the table into skin first, meat second — the skin is dipped in sugar before any pancake.
Sichuan, China
Mapo Tofu
麻婆豆腐
The dish that teaches you what mala means: numbing peppercorn over chilli, on tofu that still trembles.
Sichuan, China
Sichuan Hotpot
四川火锅
Beef-tallow broth kept boiling for hours while the table works through tripe, duck intestine and tofu skin.
Guangdong, Hong Kong
Shrimp Dumplings
虾饺
The dumpling every Cantonese dim sum chef is judged on: ten pleats, and prawns showing pink through the skin.
Shanghai, China
Soup Dumplings
小笼包
Bite a hole, drink the soup, then eat — the aspic inside melts during steaming and will scald you otherwise.
China
Lanzhou Beef Noodles
兰州拉面
Noodles pulled to your chosen gauge in front of you, dropped into beef broth clarified since dawn.
Shaanxi, China
Chinese Meat Sandwich
肉夹馍
Shaanxi's stewed pork packed into a griddle-baked bun, and the sandwich China was eating before the Roman Empire.
Guangdong, Hong Kong
Cantonese Barbecue Pork
叉烧
Ask for the fatty bun neck cut: charred maltose edges over pork that is still dripping.
Jiangsu, China
Yangzhou Fried Rice
扬州炒饭
Fried rice as a discipline — every grain separate, seasoned with stock and salt rather than soy.
Beijing, China
Savoury Crêpe
煎饼
Ninety seconds at a commuter cart: batter, egg, bean sauce and a crisp cracker folded inside.
Xinjiang, China
Cumin Lamb Skewers
羊肉串
Cumin lamb over a charcoal trough, sold in tens from pavement braziers once it gets dark.
China
Dragon Well Tea
龙井茶
Pan-fired flat by hand in the wok above West Lake, and best from the picking before early April.